Jimena Costas, Victor Hugo Cárdenas and Germán Antelo have all dropped out of the race, all stating they don't want to divide the opposition any more than it already is. Germán gave his support to Manfred. Manfred invited Cárdenas to go for the number one senate spot (which he's declined) and Jimena just wants to be a political analyst again for now.

Manfred's got a busy weekend ahead. He needs to complete his lists he'll present to the electoral court by Monday. If he fills them with all the traditional names, his sudden popularity will fizzle out. If he's smart he'll add a little more shock factor and put up some really surprising names.

The ex prefect of La Paz said in an interview last night that when Evo heard Manfred had named Leopoldo as his running mate he got so angry he hit a table so hard with his fists that he broke it.

What that tells me is that Evo's probably not feeling as secure as the Gallup Poll would make him out to be.

It'll be interesting now that Gallup is in the game w/ at least two polls (or is still their first?). The local Apoyo polls have consistently given Evo around 40-45%, w/ his primary opponents at 7-12%. It'll be interesting to see if that discrepancy continues. If so, we may end up w/ a good calibration measure, depending on if the differences between the two polling organizations are consistent. We'll also get a better of sense not only of which polling organization is more accurate, but perhaps also some indication of why (and how to move towards correcting for wide differences between polls & election results).

Manfred should give Evo a run for his money. People do not want to be a puppet state of Chavez, lets hope Evo does not start more riots get people killed and blame the opposition as he always does in the past....! PPB good luck!!! freedom will rain over Bolivia and for all Bolivians.....